yourwords

There are two ways to make a decision- quickly, and sloooowly.

As you can see from the illustration above (not my work, I snatched it from this guy) I prefer the quick decision method. It suits me. I’d rather have the decision made, and deal with the results, than to sit for weeks (or even minutes) d e l i b e r a t i n g over which course of action would have the better outcome. I used to think I was very patient until I realized I can’t even spend a full hour or two pondering important decisions. Make ‘em, get it over with, right?

Well, maybe not. The quick thinking hasn’t exactly done me right. Today, for instance, I heard my alarm clock and decided to turn it off and go back to sleep. Very quick decision, with very long term negative results. If I miss two days of school in one module (it’s like a semester that only lasts a month) then I supposedly fail the whole module and have to repeat it again before I can graduate. One quick blink and I extended my school one more month. My ‘unfallible’ philosophy covers this in chapter 5- titled “quick decision, faster backlash”

That’s a bad example, though. When I’m barely able to open my eyes, and my cat is curled up on my chest, and my earplugs don’t make it out of my ears, I don’t blame myself for wanting desperately to stay in bed. I can see where things like choosing an apartment, a spouse, a job, an exercise plan, a car- would be bad to make on the fly. They might take at-least a day for me, if I were to look online for the best deals or talk to someone more experienced than I am. But it still stands that once I am pulled one way or the other, based on gathered evidence, I make that decision right then and there, and I don’t usually ask for ‘re-dos.’

And now I’ve reached my point. It doesn’t matter if I make a decision in half a blink, or if my neighbor takes weeks and weeks to go through the pros and cons, what I think matters is sticking to that decision. Now I don’t mean that once you decide to marry someone you can never rethink that decision. I just mean I see people that I love beating themselves up over all kinds of things, doubting whether they made the right decision or not. To me, that’s needless suffering. Say you bought a new SUV, and it seems nice enough except the gas is killing your bank account. Rather than wonder for a year and a half if you should have ever bought the car, (doubting that initial decision), make a new decision. Like deciding to sell the car, or deciding that the benefits outweigh the negative. New decisions, especially quick ones, can be made everyday. The argument might be that if one had done more research into the cars, they wouldn’t have to make any ‘new decisions’. No, I say, you can never predict everything. And, lord, even if I could, I wouldn’t want to. Perhaps that’s why I make quick decisions, to keep things interesting.

Prompt:

Look back on a decision you’ve made that changed your life. Did you make that decision on the fly? Did you sit for weeks deliberating? Whichever you you did it, imagine you had done it differently. Would you still have made the same ultimate decision if you hadn’t sat for weeks? Or would you have changed your mind if you hadn’t decided right away? If you’re not happy that you made that decision (because no matter which method of decision making you use, mistakes are made) imagine if you could have known what you do now. At the time, if you had considered the exact effects of it, the ones that are making you miserable now, would you have taken those possibilities into consideration?

I’d like to believe that I have no regrets. If I got the chance to change one decision I made, I’d like to think I wouldn’t take the opportunity. My beliefs revolve around the concept that everything happens for a reason, and mistakes make you stronger. But if I really got the chance to go back, I think I would take it. It would be nice to have avoided some things.

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